Smash Bros. shown in Japan

Nintendo has shown off a new Super Smash Bros. Brawl trailer at its Nintendo World event in Japan today, "comprised almost entirely of gameplay" according to reports.

Kotaku notes that the line-up of characters - already featuring Solid Snake, remember - will also include Fox McCloud out of Star Fox. Not that big a surprise, since he was in the previous Smash Bros. games, but the first we've heard of him in Brawl.

But weren't there supposed to be surprise announcements? As it turns out, no. Wired's GameLife blog has gone to the source of the rumour - Smash Bros. designer Masahiro Sakurai's Japanese blog - and discovered that the point of his comments was lost in translation.

"Apparently a few first-year Japanese students are looking at the beginning of [the offending] paragraph, seeing the construction shin-kyara ('new characters') and assuming the rest of the sentence says WILL BE REVEALED!!!1 when what it actually says is 'For the first time, the general public will be able to see the new characters moving around in actual game screens!'" Wired's Chris Kohler writes.

Oh well. Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Nintendo Wii, announced at E3 earlier this year, is due out sometime in 2007 and is said to offer players the option of controlling it with the GameCube pad.